If I remember correctly, they lost the battle of the Mitla pass, it was indeed extremely well defended, but a relatively small group of air dropped paratroopers with no heavy equipment took it, in essence, in a hand to hand combat. By the way, stating that all Arabs armies are poor fighters is wrong. The Jordanian Legion is a formidable force. During 1967, they defended a hill (I believe it is called the French Hill, but memory may be failing me on that one), and only after a very long battle (in which they were outnumbered), the succumbed. The Israeli unit had for some time gone back there yearly to honor the fallen Jordanian soldiers. At least, that is what I was told by a relatively highly placed (now a two stars General) officer in the IDF some seven years ago. During the 1948 conflagration, the Jordanian Legion was the only Arab army that was not defeated, they actually kept until 1967 part of Jerusalem (the Jewish quarter, mount Scopius), Gush Etzion and Hebron.
Zeev |
